After speculation that the Congo had re-opened we were finally told that it wasn’t and that we would still be going to Rwanda to see the gorillas.
We left on a minibus at 10am from Lake Bunyoni in Uganda for Rwanda. It was a pretty bumpy ride with the hardest seats known to man. We arrived at a restaurant about 1 and had to wait an hour for the border to open. The border crossing took about an hour and cost us $50 for a visa. Then we changed some money in a container from a lorry - $1 = 500 Rwandan Francs. 1 hour later we were at the Hotel Fatima with huge volcanoes in the background where we would be trekking the next morning. We had a really nice dinner and pint bottles of beer to top it off.
The following day we were up at 6am and drove 14km to the visitor centre where a German guy was added to our group who had been the previous day. We were assigned to the “13 group” a family of gorillas made up of the silverback, a blackback, another juvenile male, 11 females and 8 babies – one of which was only 7 moths old. We had a briefing then headed off to the drop off point at the foot of one of the volcanoes. On the way we got stuck in the mud and had to push the minibus out.
We were given walking sticks and started the trek with our two guides. One of them had been working there for 27 years and worked with Diane Fossi the women who did loads of research on the gorillas and was the focus of Gorillas in the Mist, and he’d also guided Bill Gates as well. We also had two armed guards to protect us from buffalo, mountain elephants and worst of all poachers or rebels from the Congo. Lastly were the porters who Leda had to hire to carry her handbag!
We got shown loads of things on the way up including a dwarf chameleon, and loads of plants that the gorillas eat, and eucalyptus, camomile and stinging nettles that really hurt when you fall over on them, as we all later found out. I ate some bamboo root which apparently is like beer for gorillas.
After about an hour of trekking we met the trackers meaning we were very close. It was lucky really as treks can be 5 hours each way. We dropped our bags and sticks as gorillas can confuse them for spears. Then we caught our first glimpse of them – about 10 metres away. After 5 or 10 minutes we were led right through the group near mums, babies and eventually the silverback.
We spent well over an hour with the gorillas that were all around us. There were babies jumping around us beating their chests (which means they’re very happy) falling over and fighting with one another. At one point we were about 5 metres from the silverback and he then decided it wasn’t close enough so he moved about a metre away to check us out. We had to crouch down to show our submission and then Louisa decided to slip and nearly kick him in the face.
The time with them passed very quickly and we had to start making their way down the hill again. It was a funny experience – with loose soil to make you slip on your ass and roots to trip you over. Alana fell 15 times on the way down. Just as we got to the minibus it rained so we were just in time!
We went back to the visitor centre and bought some honey from the local area then went back to the hotel for lunch. Everyone was on a high for a long time after and for those who didn’t go missed one heck of an experience – one we’ll never forget. Hopefully this country has got to a point now where they realise that the gorillas are a huge asset to them and they can make lots of money from tourism. At $880 for our trip it was very expensive but worth every penny!
Next we headed back to Lake Bunyoni (mostly in the dark on those mountain roads) and then to Kampala again. Then it’s to Jinja to spice it up a notch and do some white water rafting at the source of the Nile.
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